Scaling up partners' knowledge

href="http://dqchannels.ciol.com/content/reselleralert/111080903.asp">Axis
Communications, one
of the global leaders in network video solutions, offers product and
solutions in security surveillance and remote monitoring domain. With
this strong focus, the company has become a preferred choice of its
customers in India. Apparently, India is now a major contributor of
Axis' Asia market revenue, and is a rapidly growing market for the
company. Today, under the aegis of a dynamic leader, Oh Tee Lee, who
is the regional director for South Asia Pacific region, the company
has been able to create a strong foothold in the Indian market. He
heads the South Asia Pacific region with focus on driving the
strategic growth and operational performance across the region and
developing strong partnerships. Under him, there are regional
managers for reaching the customers better. These regional sales
managers are responsible for driving sales, and engaging partners in
their
respective regions. The company's main business driver in India are
the channel partners. They believe, that channel partners played an
integral role in the company's growth. In fact, it is a completely
channel-driven company, wherein its focus on channels is driven by
the need to develop a core channel partner ecosystem in India.
Currently, the company has close to 850 channel partners in the
country, including co-partners, authorized partners, and solution
partners. Moreover, the company consider their channel partners as
natural partners-in-profit, and it works towards fortifying
relationship with them and nurture a long-lasting bond that is
mutually beneficial.

The success mantra behind
the company's increased presence in the Indian market is its
channel strategy that allows it to penetrate and increase its
marketshare in India through channel expansion. Axis has always been
working on a 2-tier business model ie distributors to resellers and
system integrators. This strategy has worked positively. Meanwhile,
Axis follows a flexible method where partners can achieve advanced
technical proficiency by working successfully with Axis products and
solutions. As the company encourages them to be partners-in-profits,
it constantly undertakes knowledge transfer as it believes that they
are an integral part of its business. Furthermore, Axis will keep
undertaking its partner enhancement programs and facilitate them to
grow together.

Axis Academy is one
initiative which has enabled the company to train more than 20,000
individuals worldwide and enable them to boost competence and
confidence about its products and network video technology.
Currently, the company has the following partner programs in India:

• Channel Partner
  Program (CPP) for system integrators: This program provides a platform
  to its partners to keep abreast of the latest technologies, product
  offerings, and bring the advantages of the best in network video to a
  majority of users.

• Application
  Development Partner (ADP) program: It helps software developers to
  fully integrate Axis network video products in enduser solutions, by
  providing application components, technical documentation and dedicated
  development support.

• Architecture and
  Engineering Program: It provides support tools for network architects,
  engineers and consultants who design specific IP-based security systems.

• The Technology
  Partner Program: This is aimed at companies that deliver the
  infrastructure components required in an IP-surveillance system. So,
  this program will complete its ecosystem to provide a total solution to
  the end-user. Together, technology partners and Axis can identify and
  market values such as improved functionality and performance, sharing
  information and education. For the technology partner program, the
  partner selection is strictly by invitation only and based on Axis'
  discretion.

Moreover, as a company, it
has laid special emphasis on knowledge enhancement programs wherein
it has outlined clear training modules for its partners. There are
classroom—based training, web-based training, webinars and online
training programs, which gives an opportunity to the partners to
attend online courses anywhere in the world at any time.

The partner program by
Axis is not timebound, and there is a continuous process to enroll,
train, and support new partners. There are frequent training sessions
and advanced modules within Axis Communications' Academy, packaged
as 1-day trainings, which are focused courses to meet specific
educational requirements of different target groups. Besides, it has
special training modules for sales persons and
system designers, which enable them to develop skills required to
successfully deploy and manage a small to midsize video surveillance
system. The training is provided through a mix of presentations and
hands-on exercises. Currently, Axis is one of the few vendors
investing heavily in building and scaling partner knowledge. As far
as incentive schemes are concerned, the company does run incentive
promos to recognize and reward revenue performing partners and to
drive incremental sales on a timely basis. It rewards its channel
partners during its annual partner summit conference, where the
partners are recognized for their outstanding services and
contribution to the company. Going forward, Axis has aggressive plans
to enter tier-2 and tier-3 markets for which astrong channel base is
required, in order to ensure that all its products are made
available and accessible to consumers in remote regions as well. It
will also be investing more resources in ramping up
the delivery of Axis Communication Academy training (ACAT) for
increased education of channel partners. Also, the company will be
conducting regular CPP and ADP conferences.